Readers Guide: Murder & intrigue in Jo Nesbo’s ‘Phantom’ at Library

Thursday

Nov 22, 2012 at 1:41 PMNov 22, 2012 at 1:43 PM

Will Schwalbe and his mother Mary Ann had always shared a love of reading, so when she was diagnosed in 2007 with pancreatic cancer, they decided to read and talk about a wide array of books. It helped them pass the time during doctor appointments and treatments, but it also helped them deal with their situation. Schwalbe reveals the books they read and discussed as well as the deeper discoveries they made about themselves and their relationship in “The End of Life Book Club” (616.994).

by Susie Stooksbury

Will Schwalbe and his mother Mary Ann had always shared a love of reading, so when she was diagnosed in 2007 with pancreatic cancer, they decided to read and talk about a wide array of books. It helped them pass the time during doctor appointments and treatments, but it also helped them deal with their situation. Schwalbe reveals the books they read and discussed as well as the deeper discoveries they made about themselves and their relationship in “The End of Life Book Club” (616.994).

When Harry Hole decided to resign from the police force in Oslo and move to Hong Kong, he thought he would leave his troubles behind. It takes just one phone call to pull him back — Oleg, the boy he helped raise, has been charged with murder. To make matters worse, Oleg and the dead boy, his best friend Gusto, were using and dealing a new drug called “violin.” With little support from his former colleagues in the police, Harry works alone on a case that will eventually lead him to sinister forces both in the department and in the government. “Phantom” is by Jo Nesbo.

In 1946, when former paratrooper Harry Copeland sees lovely Catherine Thomas Hale on the Staten Island Ferry, he is immediately smitten — and not long afterward she returns his feelings. They face a wealth of problems, though: Harry, heir to his father's leather goods business, is fighting off the Mafia while Catherine, an heiress and aspiring singer, has a jilted fiancé whose quest for vengeance is far reaching. Mark Helprin presents an elegantly written and compelling love story “In Sunlight and in Shadows.”

By all accounts, we have reached the point where Congress and the president must work together on a viable economic plan or we will face worse economic troubles. Former Congressman Mickey Edwards addresses the current dangerous polarization within our government and offers some sensible solutions in “The Parties versus the People: How to Turn Republicans and Democrats into Americans” (320.973).

The little French village of Lansquenet is in trouble once again in Joanne Harris' charming “Peaches for Father Francis.” Vianne Rocher, who came to the aid of the townspeople in Chocolat, receives a letter from her friend Armanda asking her to help soothe the breach between Father Francis Reynard and Ines Bencharki who has accused the old priest of burning down her school for Muslim girls. It will take more than confections to heal this rift and return Lansquenet to its former tranquility.

“Life at Home in the Twenty-First Century” (392.360) takes an ethno-archaeological approach in studying our culture to give a realistic view of how Americans live today. The 32 middle class families who opened their doors for this intriguing social experiment don't live in the stunning, clutter-free houses we see on HGTV and in the pages of Southern Living. Rather, their homes are messy and comfortable and full of the by-products of their busy daily lives — just like the rest of us.